1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to production of billing statements. Particularly, the present invention relates the production of billing statements for different services and the production of a single billing statement for telephone, cable, and data services.
2. Description of Related Art
Service providers such as local telephone service providers, long distance telephone service providers, and cable television service providers typically produce and send their customers monthly billing statements that reflect charges based on transactions such as telephone calls, pay per view requests, etc. that occurred during the month. Typically, separate statements are produced and sent for each service because each service is subject to different messages, notices, inserts, taxes, collection procedures, etc. Furthermore, there are often physical limitations with respect to the printed bill such that all of the information the service provider would like to print on the bill cannot be accommodated. Current statement production systems impose further limitations by providing few formatting and layout options to service providers. Service providers today need flexibility in defining the format and layout options for billing statements and further need the ability to generate one billing statement for accounts having any combination of telephone, cable, and/or data services.